epted their paper, the Society gave the necessary sanction,
and in November the article entitled "To Your Tents, O Israel" appeared.
Each of the great departments of the State was examined in detail, and
for each was stated precisely what should be done to carry out the
promise that the Government would be "in the first flight of employers,"
and what in fact had been done, which indeed, with rare exceptions, was
nothing. The "Parish Councils Act" and Sir William Harcourt's great
Budget of 1894 were still in the future, and so far there was little to
show as results from the Liberal victory of the previous year. The case
against the Government from the Labour standpoint was therefore
unrelieved black, and the Society, in whose name the Manifesto appeared,
called on the working classes to abandon Liberalism, to form a Trade
Union party of their own, to raise L30,000 and to finance fifty
candidates for Parliament. It is a curious coincidence that thirteen
years later, in 1906, the Party formed, as the Manifesto demanded, by
the big Trade Unions actually financed precisely fifty candidates and
succeeded in electing thirty of them.

The Manifesto led to the resignation of a few distinguished members,
including Professor D.G. Ritchie, Mrs. Bateson, widow of the Master of
St. John's College, Cambridge, and more important than all the rest, Mr.
H.W. Massingham. He was on the Continent when the Manifesto was in
preparation; otherwise perhaps he might have come to accept it: for his
reply, which was published in the same magazine a month later, was
little more than a restatement of the case. "The only sound
interpretation of a model employer," he said, "is a man who pays trade
union rates of wages, observes trade union limit of hours, and deals
with 'fair' as opposed to 'unfair' houses. Apply all these tests and the
Government unquestionably breaks down on every one of them." If this was
all that an apologist for the Government could say, no wonder that the
attack went home. The opponents of Home Rule were of course delighted to
find another weak spot in their adversary's defences; and the episode
was not soon forgotten.

In January the article was reprinted with much additional matter
drafted by Bernard Shaw. He showed in considerable detail how a Labour
Party ought to be formed, and how, in fact, it was formed seven years
later. With our numerous and still flourishing local societies, and the
newly formed I.L.P., a large circu